NEW YORK, Dec 13 — Multi-million dollar tournament video game Dota 2 has rolled out its latest major update, with the introduction of legendary Chinese folk hero Sun Wukong prominent among its changes.

Immortalised through 16th century Chinese classic Journey to the West, Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, has now arrived in one of the world's biggest video games, Dota 2.

Built on community-made favourite Defence of the Ancients, a team-based game which helped spawn the MOBA genre specific to many of its hallmarks, Dota 2 has become the world's biggest tournament game in raw financial terms.

League of Legends might dwarf it in terms of monthly active users at over 100 million to the 13 million of Dota 2, but the smaller game has awarded over US$$91 million (RM401.3 million) across 654 tournaments (versus US$36 million via 1,773 events, per esportsearnings.com).

Sun Wukong's history with Dota extends way back, but he was never officially released for the fan mod. As a result, he is the first of 113 Dota 2 characters not to have made his debut in the former game.

Now his time has come, having already been added to a host of other games including sci-fi action title Warframe, mobile hit Puzzle & Dragons, fellow MOBA Smite, Nintendo fave Kirby's Dream Collection, and multiple other releases — especially Asian-oriented MMOs — which have integrated elements from Journey to the West.

Wielding a powerful staff and able to summon a squad of monkeys, blend into the surroundings, and leap from treetops onto enemies below, Wukong's arrival is accompanied by an optional, purchasable Chinese-modified variant of the Dota 2 level layout.

He also heralds extensive changes to the way Dota 2 works, as competitive teams recharge following a major tournament in Boston, Massachusetts and prepare for April's Kiev, Ukraine Major whose qualifiers start in early March.

By then, players will have familiarised themselves with a new, minimalised in-game interface that promises increased visibility and customisation, as well as a revised pre-game preparation area designed to aid character selection and team strategy formation.

There are also greater levels of control over how characters gain in power, adjustments to the Dota 2 arena layout, and even the ability to add AI-controlled players whose programs can be shared among the Dota 2 community.

World championship event The International, now in its seventh year, will then be held in August 2017.

This year's event, known colloquially as TI6, was built upon a US$20 million community-funded prize pool, up from US$16.4 million at 2015's TI5. — AFP-Relaxnews